


The Dragon and the Mouse

by Tipuzzle



Category: The Zodiac Trial (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alcohol, Bunny Route Spoilers, Dragon Swears a Lot, F/F, Fluff, Route Reflection, platonic or romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:21:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29785692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tipuzzle/pseuds/Tipuzzle
Summary: After the Jade Emperor's game has come to an end, Mouse has a lot left to reflect on. At possibly the lowest point in her life, Mouse is given another chance at happiness through a conversation with her new friend, Dragon. [Bunny Route Spoilers]
Relationships: Mouse/Dragon (The Zodiac Trial)
Kudos: 4





	The Dragon and the Mouse

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to LanceUppercut68 on Discord for helping me refine a threat used later in the fic, and thanks to my best friends in the whole world for looking over this fic for me (ForetellerAva and others).
> 
> My hope is to write a few stories regarding non-true ending route ends.
> 
> Check out the TZT Discord! We discuss the game, characters, routes, and more! https://discord.gg/ACDGrCgN73

It had been a significantly traumatic ordeal for Mouse to go through, but in the end, she survived.

The fact that she was alive somewhat felt like it came down to dumb luck. So many people had been voted off just because of the whims of the traitors: if Dog had decided to gun against her, for example, she might not have made it out alive. Luckily, Mouse was never targeted, and she was able to bounce back at the last moment.

But even after Bunny had been killed, which marked the last traitor dead, things still felt tense. All three survivors had seen plenty of death- not even Monkey was speaking up, and honestly, Mouse felt that was more than understandable. Sure, she was a therapist, but she wasn’t a superwoman: this whole thing must have gotten to her, too.

So, at least for this round, the survivors went about their business, silently thinking to themselves. They made sure not to vote for anyone every 15 minutes, and made doubly sure to use all the Minor Trinkets they had on as many tablets as they could every 45 minutes.

In about three rounds’ time, they should be able to escape. But during those last two hours, it was as though each of the three remaining souls were all holding their breath, hoping that Brian wouldn’t appear on that television again and announce some new, horrible twist.

Not a single one of them dared to even speak, stewing in their own thoughts. Mouse sat at a table in the cafeteria, far from the carnage of the voting system, but still in the same room. Somehow, it didn’t feel right to leave them: even Bunny and Dog, who had tried to use trickery to kill off the rest of the group one-by-one, were both just trying to survive. Some part of her would never be able to blame them for that.

The blame all went to Brian, after all.

“Hey.” Finally, the silence was broken: a familiar face appears, walking over and tossing her leg over the opposite side of the cafeteria table, sitting down with her arms crossed. Dragon looked fairly unamused, tapping her fingers on her purple-cloaked arms, looking Mouse up and down. “You alright? You know you don’t gotta be in the room with the corpses, right?”

“...” Mouse took a moment to consider, gently scratching her neck, just below her collar: for the last few minutes, there had been the most annoying itch there, and she had been trying to focus on that rather than anything else. It served as a nice distraction from ‘the corpses’, but now that Dragon had brought them up, it was impossible to ignore. “... Someone has to be here. To make sure the race is on track every round, and to… I don’t know. Keep them company?” She flinches. “Is that weird?”

“Yeah.” Dragon taps her fingers, but breathes out a heavy sigh. Part of her can’t blame Mouse, it seems, as she has a somewhat sympathetic face. “It’s weird. But I get it. Sheep, Horse, Rooster, Ox, Tiger… None of them deserved this shit.”

Mouse noted that there were some names missing from that list of sympathy, and if it were any other time, she might have posed her hot take that ‘everyone but Brian is innocent’. However, while Mouse did have trouble keeping her mouth shut sometimes, after all that had happened today she was content with holding her silence on this issue. “Right.” She nods along in agreement. “I wish we never found that stupid Major Trinket.”

“Yeah, same.” Dragon clenches her arm a bit: it seemed that she had a good amount of righteous fury bottled up still, but even she knew that now was not the time nor place to get angry about things she can’t change. “Hey, Mouse, I wanted to ask you something. It’s about Bunny’s bullshit.”

Mouse perked up, surprised: honestly, she hadn’t expected Dragon to be the reflective type. Maybe the young law student was too quick to judge, though. “Go ahead, Dragon. Was there something about what he said that bothered you?” She wonders, curling her hand to her chin, giving the gang leader her full attention.

“Well, that question’s way more broad.” Dragon deadpans. She scoffs, crossing one leg over the other, making herself comfy. “Everything that rat bastard said ‘bothered’ me, Mouse. But at the end there, he tried saving his own skin by throwing me under the bus.” She scowls, pissed. “... ‘Course, I shut him up real quick.”

Mouse recalled that moment. It was so strange how, in all the other deaths, she had to look away. The young woman was disgusted by all of the death that occurred around her, and she was fairly sure she was going to need significantly more therapy after all of this. And yet, when Dragon killed Bunny, it was like watching the hero take down the villain: Bunny was a traitor who tried to kill them all, and was more than willing to make any excuse possible to get out of taking responsibility.

The law student was fairly unnerved by the fact that she had been more ‘okay’ with Bunny’s death. She had just been thinking that it was all Brian’s fault, but that didn’t change the fact that Bunny was the ‘enemy’, and seeing his death was more a relief than anything. Dragon had saved Mouse and Monkey in that moment. Bunny could have pulled any number of tricks to try and kill them all to secure his freedom, but in the end, he was forcibly stopped.

This was just gonna have to be another thing she was going to have to bring up with her sessions with Monkey, Mouse determined.

Dragon took Mouse’s silence as an excuse to continue. “This shit shouldn’t bother me, but, I guess I gotta know. Be honest, I won’t touch you no matter what your answer is.” She sighs, rolling her shoulder, preparing for disappointment. “Would you have taken that deal? Him over me?”

Mouse blinks, taken off-guard; she certainly hadn’t expected any level of insecurity from Dragon. The ‘Slugger Queen’ had always been so self-assured; but, then again, she had gone through all of the same things Mouse just had. It only made sense that she was having just as hard a time of it as anyone else would.

Taking a moment to consider, Mouse shook her head. “There’s no way I would have taken that offer! Bunny got so many of us killed, and, well, I don’t care what he said about you. You’re a good person, I wouldn’t have voted for you.” Mouse got a little rambly there at the end, but she finished her explanation with a frown, crossing her arms around her chest. “Even if I believed all the things he said about what he’s been trying to do, I would have voted for him.”

Now was Dragon’s turn to be caught off-guard; her usually-narrow eyes widened, and she placed a finger to her forehead, thinking this through. “Good person? Mouse, I don’t know if you’ve been paying any attention, but I’m not a ‘good person’.” She has a small snarl on her face. “I’m a fuckin’ gang leader. Bunny wasn’t wrong about any of that shit. How did you get ‘good person’ out of that?”

“Well, yeah, you’re a gang leader, and I’m not going to pretend that’s a good thing.” Mouse defends her answer, adjusting the collar of her green jacket. “But you’ve been constantly taking actions throughout the game for the good of the group. I don’t buy that you’re just some ‘awful criminal’.”

“Heh. That’s naive kindness if I’ve ever heard it.” Dragon taps her head, grinning. “You don’t remember when I rejoined the voting block and opted to fuckin’ execute you and the others, one by one? Can’t believe you’d side with me after that shit.”

Mouse shakes her head. “I mean, yeah, from my perspective, it’s a dick move.” The law student grants the dragoness. “But at that point, you were sure there was at least one traitor in our group. If you wanted the game to end with as few casualties as possible, reforming the voting block with the people that were in the library just made sense. Chaos could have let the traitors get away with it scot-free.”

“We were gonna vote you next, you know.” Dragon scoffs, finding this all to be unbelievable. “You could’ve died if Bunny didn’t decide to stab us in the back.”

Mouse was unnerved by that, but pressed on. “That’s not the only reason I think you aren’t as bad as you say you are. Remember when Ox volunteered to get voted? You volunteered, too. That was a really dangerous plan, but you still stepped up.”

“Tch. I just wanted to prove I was just as fearless!” Dragon taps her head, annoyed. “It was pissing me off that Ox was taking charge of everything, anyway. Figured I’d get some fuckin’ respect around here that way.”

“Well, you did get some respect.” Mouse offered with a small smile. “Mine.”

Dragon leans back, taking a moment to let this sink in. With a slight grin, she bounces back: her defensiveness seems to be gone, and she seems more pleased than anything. “Well, fuck it; I guess I shouldn’t be so pissed about you thinking I’m great.” She crosses her arms. “But, you know, you are the one that saved our asses, Mouse. There’s no way in hell I ever would’ve figured out it was Bunny that was tricking us. If you didn’t catch on, I would’ve been voted for sure.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just glad I could help put a stop to him.” Mouse smiles back. “I’ll feel a lot better once we’re out of here, though. I just can’t stop worrying that something can go wrong so long as this collar’s around my neck.” She gestures to the death collar, still nervous.

The other girl nods, flipping her hair. “Yeah, no shit: I can’t wait to get out of here.” She sports a sharp grin. “Hey, once we’re out, wanna go for drinks? I’m sure we can find a bar nearby with enough walking.”

“Uh, I don’t know.” Mouse immediately tries to weasel out of this. “I need to call up my mom and my friends, let them know I’m okay. Plus, shouldn’t we contact the police, give testimony, let them know what happened here?”

“Ah, Monkey can handle all that shit; better her than us! The police would just try and pin some of this shit on me, and I can already tell you’re one bad question away from a panic attack.” Dragon rolls her eyes, holding out a hand. “At least this way we can both get shitfaced before we have to deal with all of that bull. What do you say?”

Mouse considered it again: it was true that she really would rather just go anywhere else and think about anything else after this. Even if it wasn’t necessarily the responsible thing to do, it was absolutely what she wanted- and even if Monkey would never agree with using alcohol as a coping mechanism, Mouse would argue that this was exactly the kind of situation that alcohol was made for.

Yeah, Mouse could get some actual help later. Right now, she needed something that would soften the blow of all of this trauma.

“Sounds like a plan.” She agreed, shaking Dragon’s hand with an anxious smile. This caused the gang leader to light up, grinning widely.

“Fuck yeah!~ Let’s get out there and show Brian that his bullshit ain’t gonna keep us down!” The Dragon roared, punching her right fist into her left hand after a successful handshake. “Just one more round and we’re out of here, Mouse. Drinks are on me!”

Mouse couldn’t help but smile, watching Dragon get so happy about this. The gang leader gets out of her seat and walks off, ready to input all of her actions for the round. Mouse watches as she leaves, almost wanting to follow: the gang leader had this inescapable kind of charisma that helped to lift Mouse’s spirits, even after all of this madness was over.

It would be a struggle to admit to Monkey that they were going to go get drunk and leave the ‘responsible’ work to her, but in the end, Monkey seemed more than pleased to handle everything herself. Mouse just chalked that one up to Monkey being such a mature and responsible person!

And so, after their collars popped off, they left.

=-=

“Yeah, that’s right! Touch her again and your ass’ll end up in handicap parking!”

Dragon roared, standing over some poor sap who had just caught her fist. The man scrambles up and dashes out of the bar, putting as much distance between himself and the Slugger Queen as physically possible. With that look of fear on his face, Mouse would gamble that he was willing to buy a plane ticket to a neighboring country just to get away from Dragon.

Dragon sits back down on the stool next to Mouse, grumbling beneath her breath. “Fuckin’ coward.” She hisses, glancing over to her new drinking buddy. “You alright, Mouse? Are you fucking cursed or something? First you get out of a death game, now you’ve dickwads creeping on ya.”

“I’m fine. I have you here, don’t I?” Mouse grins, raising her glass and taking another drink of that hard-hitting liquid. “I think everything’s going to be alright.”

Dragon grins back, glad to hear it. “Ha!~ That’s right, girl. I’ll watch your back!” She beams, raising her glass. “You’ve got the Slugger Queen on your side now, Mouse!~... Er, Mary. Don’t you fuckin’ forget it!”

She downs it all in one go, and Mouse laughs, pleased. It was nice to hear her real name from a good new friend, but even if it might be related to the death game, she didn’t really have many problems with the nickname ‘Mouse’. Just as she hoped Dragon wouldn’t mind if she was always ‘Dragon’ in Mouse’s head.

It was just another sign that they wouldn’t let this death game control their lives. They’d take the lessons learned from it and become stronger people as a result.

Brian, Bunny, Dog… They could all go to hell. As far as Mouse was concerned, she had everything she’d ever wanted right here, and they couldn’t take it away from her, despite their best efforts.

Everything was going to be alright.


End file.
